By Lindy Hume, director of The Barber of Seville
This co-production between Opera Queensland (Australia), Seattle Opera and New Zealand Opera started life in 2016 as a two hundredth birthday celebration of The Barber of Seville. It adopted a equally joyful collaboration between our firms on a 2014 manufacturing of Rossini’s Cinderella. Right here in 2024, I’m delighted to say that since their Brisbane debuts, each productions have been well-travelled and warmly embraced by audiences in around the globe and throughout Australasia. It’s a delight to revisit our salute to Rossini’s comedian genius at a time when the world is thirsty for what Barber provides in abundance: humanity, love, laughter and the potential of a contented ending, all set to Rossini’s exhilarating music.
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| © Jacob Lucas |
Rossini was solely 24 when he wrote Barber in 13 days, and 25 when he wrote Cinderella a 12 months later (this took just a little longer—three weeks). His Rosina and Angelina, Geltrude Righetti, was the identical age, and these works explode with their youthful power, velocity and naughtiness. Each items had been based mostly on subversive political concepts: the potential of love bringing collectively the Aristocracy, the bourgeoisie and the decrease courses; a middle-class hero—Rossini’s characters are anarchic, flawed and filled with humanity. His Act 1 finales, characterised by the well-known “Rossini crescendo” and “ensembles of perplexity,” are the embodiment of utter chaos verging on insanity. The well-known story of that disastrous opening evening in Rome in 1816 simply provides to this already scrumptious feast.
Is Barber the best sitcom ever? Possibly, perhaps not. First present me one other sitcom that has maintained its world recognition for quite a lot of many years and we are able to examine.
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| © Philip Newton |
Tracy Grant Lord’s design is a chaotic collage of doorways of every kind—however this illogical structure is smart—the motion takes place first in a streetscape after which inside a loopy, fusty outdated home with many rooms and a suspicious outdated man guarding the keys. Trapped inside, a younger lady is rising into a girl who longs for escape. She hears engaging information from Figaro of the world exterior these doorways—a world of freedom and pleasure, of noisy musicians and nosy neighbours, of Paris fashions, gossip and most thrillingly, a world of romance and journey. And on the opposite facet of her window, the Depend Almaviva sings as he desires of breaking down the doorways to rescue her.
At its coronary heart, like all timeless dramas, The Barber of Seville is about individuals, relationships and a human theme everybody can relate to—the battle between youthful and older generations. Two younger individuals in love overcome all obstacles to be collectively. Set to Rossini’s ebullient melodies, that is the key of its longevity. No prizes for guessing which facet of the battle the composer was on. To borrow the army analogy Almaviva, disguised as a drunken soldier, slurs to Rosina’s crusty outdated guardian Bartolo: “You need to battle? Good! That is the ditch, and you’re the enemy!”
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| © Philip Newton |
Rosina is each battleground and prize on this conflict. Victory will likely be gained by technique and resourcefulness. The chances appear stacked in Bartolo’s favour. He has the prisoner, the keys and a ragbag military: loopy Basilio working intelligence and propaganda, Berta and Ambrogio because the Stasi spies and gatekeepers (though one senses that of their hearts they too lengthy for liberation). The “poor scholar” Lindoro has solely his youthful audacity and a sequence of harebrained schemes cooked up by his ex-servant Figaro. The truth that he’s really a fabulously rich nobleman in disguise does nonetheless assist when issues go pear-shaped.
So in fact, younger love triumphs ultimately, because it ought to. Because it all the time has and all the time will.
Which brings us again to the connections between Barber and Cinderella, the place love additionally triumphs within the face of adversity, and to the plain parallels between the characters of Dandini and Figaro, brothers in scratchy grasp/valet relationships that reveal Rossini’s acute consciousness of the social injustices implicit in servitude at the moment. Curiously, each are expert barbers.
In 1825, The Barber of Seville was the primary full-length opera ever carried out in New York, with the teenage Maria Malibran, a famous person within the making, taking part in Rosina in a forged that included her father as Almaviva and her brother as Figaro. It was a sensation. America instantly took Barber to its coronary heart, and it’s not arduous to see why. The unashamedly showy character of Figaro is the very embodiment of the American spirit of enterprise and optimism. An formidable self-made man, Figaro loves his work. He makes himself indispensable to his shoppers, in flip his usefulness and charisma makes him cash. And cash makes him a free man: Seville’s most sought-after businessman, no much less. Who wants the category system?
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| © Jacob Lucas |
Lastly, a phrase about Figaro’s dazzling aria. It’s most likely too well-known for its personal good, and
the prospect of discovering new methods to stage any hit track is daunting. However in making ready this manufacturing, I’ve gained a brand new respect for “Largo al Factotum.” Rossini wrote it for his good friend Luigi Zamboni and the love reveals. He knew it was a showstopper and doubtless the most effective entrance aria ever written.
One factor’s for certain, when the orchestra strikes up with that well-known tune, 208 years after it was written, it’s nonetheless assured to ship a shot of adrenaline from stage to viewers and again once more. And it reminds us, right here within the digital age on the opposite facet of the planet, of Rossini’s full mastery of comedy.
The Barber of Seville runs Could 4–19, 2024, at Seattle Opera. Tickets and information at seattleopera.org/barber.
